Hospital Food

Dairy Queen was recently a short-term resident of UMass Memorial Hospital, and had the opportunity to sample the delicious cafeteria offerings. Here, she'll review both the clear liquid diet and the regular diet provided by the Morrison Catering service.

Clear Liquid
Not much to say about this diet. At least there's variety. Apple juice, ginger ale, water, broth, coffee, tea (no milk), and Jell-O. I've learned that I don't really like orange Jell-O. Also, the containers they use to make the Jell-O and to serve fruit in are really difficult to open. (I should note, maybe not so difficult if you're not on morphine.)

Regular Diet
This diet was actually pretty good. On Saturday morning, I had scrambled eggs, a sausage patty, and a corn muffin for breakfast. Delish. The eggs definitely had salt in them and all the food was really hot. It comes in an insulated container with a lid. To drink, coffee and OJ. Both good. Now, it's possible that I loved the food so much because it was the first solid food I'd had since Wednesday night, but I don't think so.

Lunch was not as good. Chicken and rice soup was SO bland. The broth was water, no seasonings. I sent back the fruit cup because I was paranoid that the melon was tainted. I'm sure it wasn't, since I learned later that the Dole contaminated melons never made it to retail stores. Better safe than sorry, though. The banana that replaced it was good.

Dinner was chicken marsala, rice, and mixed vegetables. Very tasty. Dessert was vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Breakfast the next day was a scrambled egg, bacon and cheese breakfast wrap with a hash brown that looked like the Micky D's hashbrowns. Tasty! I didn't like the wrap, but I usually don't. I just ate the filling. Again, coffee and juice.

Lunch the next day was a fruit, cheese and turkey plate with a bowl of cream of broccoli soup and a chocolate brownie. The soup was really delicious. I was wary, but pleasantly surprised. The fruit plate had green grapes, strips of real turkey, not deli meat, and cubes of sliced orange cheese. It was odd but refreshing. The brownie was good.

Overall, I thought the food was good and the service was really good. If I wanted something else, they were happy to comply. If you have to eat hospital food, this is pretty good.

(That's not to say that I didn't totally enjoy the decaf dunkin donuts coffee that my friend gave me one night.)